I was surprised when I heard the news, at the time, my mother was in her early sixties, and insanely active and healthy. The woman participated the AIDS lifecycle event; a 6 day, 550 mile bike ride. A few days after, she was off to Egypt and Russia.

I get tired biking to work, and my last big trip was Napa which is only an hour away. In fact, her main concern after being diagnosed was that the surgery would get in the way of her bike riding.

After hearing about mom, I went to work doing some research about ways I could help using what I know best – food. I wanted to put together something that was easy to prepare, full of flavor, and packed with cancer fighting vitamins and antioxidants.

After a bit of research into cancer smart foods and what seemed to work well, I developed this recipe.

This simple fruit salad works at the start of the meal or as a dessert. The fruit is lightly glazed with either a simple syrup or agave syrup.

Ginger, a bit of lemon, and some savory thyme which pairs amazingly with summer fruits accents the tartness of the berries and the sweetness of the stone fruit.

Ingredients

1/4 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet the fruit is, you may be able to skip all together)

Or 1 tablespoon of agave syrup in lieu of water and sugar

Method

1 Make simple syrup: If using water and sugar place them into a sauce pan and bring to a boil and liquid is reduced by half into a simple syrup. Allow to cool.

2 Combine ingredients: Chop up the peaches and nectarines and place them in a bowl with the blueberries. Pour over the cooled simple syrup or agave syrup. Add the thyme, lemon juice, lemon zest, and ginger.

3 Chill for 1 hour: Stir and cover with plastic wrap, place in the fridge and allow to macerate for one hour. Serve.

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Luckily, her surgery was a success and with the doctors finding no need to proceed with chemo or radiation she is well on the road of recovery; something she attributes to getting her yearly mammogram, which allowed her to catch it early.

Guys and girls, please be sure to get yourself checked regularly by your doctor in order to keep yourself healthy, aware, and safe.

I, Elise, and my mother all encourage you to please check out the links at the end of this post for information on cancer awareness and various resources.

We also encourage anyone with a food blog to post their own cancer conscious recipes or leave them in the comments section.

Garrett McCord is a professional writer and recipe developer whose work has appeared in many print and online publications such as Gourmet Live, Saveur, Huffington Post, Smithsonian, and NPR. Past clients also include numerous food companies, wineries, and distilleries. Garrett writes about cocktails on his website, Coupe de Grace.

This was an AMAZING salad! I made it this weekend. I couldn’t get my hands on thyme, so I used mint. Instead of simple syrup (trying to cut processed sugar from the diet where possible), I used about 1/4 cup of sour cherry preserves.

OH MY GOODNESS! We ate this by itself first – wonderful. The next day, after lots of juice had been created – we ladled it over pound cake and/or vanilla ice cream – EVEN BETTER!

I can’t wait to to try this salad! I also shared this recipe with my mom who just emerged victorious in a showdown with endometrial cancer. In the picture it looks like there are also chopped apples, but I don’t see them in the ingredient list. Am I crazy? :o)

Props to your mom!!! As for the apple, yeah, you’re crazy. However, they might be quite tasty added to this. ~Garrett